HIPC

This blog post was co-authored with Dino Merotto, Tihomir Stucka, and Tau Huang.

The benefits of debt relief have persisted, although some countries may now be borrowing too quickly.

Remember Jubilee 2000 and the HIPC Initiative? Remember the “Drop the Debt” and “One” movements in 2005? Live 8? Bono on the White House Lawn? Those white “make poverty history” wristbands?

Seven years on, debt is now making headlines in the rich countries. In Europe and the US the news is of sovereign debt downgrades amid speculation about capacity to rollover debts, and countries’ long-term fiscal capacity to repay.